October 23, 2009

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An official at a Democratic-leaning organization sends on a memo the group Media Matters is circulating today to progressive groups, calling Fox "a lethal 24/7 partisan political operation" and rallying a coalition of groups to join the White House assault on the network.

"The danger to progressive causes and the institution of journalism has become too significant to ignore," says the introduction to a memo by Media Matters founder David Brock. "At Media Matters, we believe it is of paramount importance that progressive leaders have the information necessary to understand exactly what Fox News has become. We hope this brief memorandum will assist you in reaching your own decision on how best to engage this threat."

One of the group's conclusions: Progressive groups should join the White House's effective boycott of the network, and failing that, "any progressive who chooses to go on Fox News should understand that they will be debating the political opposition, not conducting a news interview."

Brock concludes:

Fox News is engaged in a 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week political campaign against the Obama administration, the progressive movement, and the entire progressive agenda. There is no real distinction between its "opinion" and so-called "news" programs. They both display the same contempt for journalistic standards, objectivity, and accuracy. The examples provided above represent a mere fraction of those Media Matters has collected and offer much for progressives to consider when deciding whether or how to engage Fox. In our professional opinion, any progressive engaging Fox News will be engaging not a journalistic enterprise, but the political opposition.

When confronted with evidence and charges such as these, Fox has reacted forcefully to protect its image, brand, and ratings. This reveals that it is not impervious to criticism. In fact, Fox is scared. One need look no further than its paranoid reaction to the recent comments of Anita Dunn to see this fear. "If they repeat this long enough," said Fox's Bernie Goldberg on October 19, "and often enough – that Fox News is not a real news organization, it's an arm of the national Republican Party, it's not to be taken seriously – if they say that long enough, it might become part of bloodstream of the American culture."

For once, Mr. Goldberg’s network was broadcasting the truth. Fox News’ success as a political campaign depends upon the pretense of being an independent and credible news organization. It is now the job of progressives to expose the true nature of the network, thereby defending their own political principles and the institution of journalism itself.

Full memo after the jump.

Dear:

In recent days, a new level of scrutiny has been directed toward Fox News, in no small part due to statements from the White House, and from Media Matters, challenging its standing as a news organization.

Media Matters has monitored Fox News every day for more than 5 years. Our analysis of their programming has led us to the unavoidable conclusion that Fox is no longer operating as a “conservative news organization,” but as an outright partisan political operation – and brazenly so.

Since the election of Barack Obama, the Fox News Channel has transformed itself into something truly unprecedented: a lethal 24/7 partisan political operation with an instantaneous national reach. Fox has declared war on this White House, the majority in the United States Congress, and progressive organizations and activists. For Fox News, victory is defined as the destruction of both the Obama administration and the entire progressive policy agenda. Fox News host Glenn Beck predicted last week that he will soon "take the administration down."

The danger to progressive causes and the institution of journalism has become too significant to ignore. At Media Matters, we believe it is of paramount importance that progressive leaders have the information necessary to understand exactly what Fox News has become. We hope this brief memorandum will assist you in reaching your own decision on how best to engage this threat.

As our evidence demonstrates, Fox News has exhibited a consistent willingness to ignore any and all journalistic standards to pursue political ends. The failure to recognize Fox News for what it is enables the network to continue waging a massive conservative political campaign disguised as journalism.

We hope you find this information helpful. If you have any questions or would like any additional information, please feel free to contact Media Matters at your convenience. Together, we can hold Fox News accountable to the high standards of journalism every American has a right to expect from their media.

Sincerely,

David Brock
Founder & CEO, Media Matters for America

October 22, 2009

To: Progressive Leaders
From: David Brock

RE: A New Approach to Fox News

Over the past several years, there has been an escalating debate among both progressive elected officials and leaders regarding the nature of Fox News and the way in which progressives should view the network. That debate has increased in intensity in the wake of recent comments by Anita Dunn and other administration officials. Media Matters has been listening closely to this discussion, and, as an organization which has followed Fox News for years, was one of the first to describe what the network has now become. We feel it is our responsibility, therefore, to further the discussion by clearly and concisely presenting evidence from which we have drawn our conclusions.

Since the election of Barack Obama, the Fox News Channel has transformed itself from its original format – one that essentially put conservative talk radio on television – into something truly unprecedented: a lethal partisan political operation that is at war with progressives, disguised as a news channel, and for whom victory is defined as the destruction of the Obama administration and the entire progressive agenda. Glenn Beck said so himself last week, predicting that he would soon "take the administration down." This transition has been so stark that I would not have written this memo a year or even six months ago, but the threat Fox News now presents has become too dangerous to ignore.

It is of paramount importance that the mainstream media, progressive leaders, opinion makers of all stripes, and the American people come to understand what Fox News is and what it is not. Too many reporters and commentators have continued to treat Fox as a news organization and have discussed criticism of it in the context of mere political brinksmanship. By doing so, they are enabling Fox News to conduct a massive conservative political campaign under the guise of journalism, undermining the field as well as the public's understanding of key issues.

As previously stated, the evidence at hand has led us to the unavoidable conclusion that Fox News is not a news organization. Below is a mere sampling of the observations we have made and examples we have collected that demonstrate Fox News’ inherently political nature and its consistent willingness to ignore journalistic standards in the pursuit of political ends.

Finally, we hope to convey our belief that any progressive who chooses to go on Fox News should understand that they will be debating the political opposition, not conducting a news interview.

The New Fox News

Media Matters has not come to hold our view of Fox News lightly. Every day for the past five years, our researchers have monitored Fox News and debunked countless instances of misinformation. However, what they have witnessed over the past several months is both new and deeply disturbing. In that time, Fox News has, among other things:

• Compared the President of the United States, members of Congress and progressive leaders to Nazis and genocidal dictators such as Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin and Mao Zedong;
• Referred to President Barack Obama as a racist who has a “deep seeded hatred for white people”;
• Repeated calls for revolution in the supposed defense of liberty;
• Simulated the assassination of Speaker Nancy Pelosi on air;
• Routinely insinuated that the Obama administration and Democratic Congress are destroying the United States as we know it.

This rhetoric itself is shocking, but it is merely an evocative representation of the overall political strategy Fox News is now implementing.

When the White House recently voiced concerns about these developments, Michael Clemente, the channel’s senior vice president for news, responded in a revealing way: “Instead of governing, the White House continues to be in campaign mode, and Fox News is the target of their attack mentality. ... Perhaps the energy would be better spent on the critical issues that voters are worried about.”

This is not the statement of a news executive. It is campaign spin. Glenn Beck was not wrong about Fox News’ place in the political ecosystem when just this week on his radio show he stated, "Can you imagine what America would be like if we didn't have Fox News. ... Can you imagine what the world would be like if we didn't have somebody standing up and playing opposition?"

A Political Campaign, Not a News Network

Fox News is not a news operation. It now comprises all of the elements of a political campaign, including organizing, explicitly partisan advocacy, (highly dubious) opposition research, War Room-style attack communications and even fundraising for the Republican Party and the conservative movement. Consider the following realities:

• Fox CEO Roger Ailes described Fox News’ fight against the Obama administration as "the Alamo." Fox's senior vice president for news, Bill Shine, said the network was "the voice of the opposition."

• More than any other organization – even Newt Gingrich’s American Solutions or Dick Armey’s FreedomWorks – Fox News was the driving force behind the April 15 anti-Obama Tea Parties (described by organizers as part of a 2010 electoral strategy), running 20 stories on them and 73 in-show promotions in the week leading up to them. Fox sponsored the events, branding many of them as "FNC Tax Day Tea Parties." In addition, the network publicized the dates and locations of the events on its website, promoted organizations sponsoring the protests, and multiple Fox hosts broadcast live from protest locations.

• Over the summer, Fox News hosts unabashedly directed viewers to attend August town halls, urging them to "fight back," and as Sean Hannity put it, "become part of the mob." The network largely provided information for meetings hosted by Democratic Members of Congress. At one point, it claimed that it would list GOP town halls too if it could find the relevant times and dates, all of which were easily accessible online. In its coverage, Fox relentlessly promoted town hall attendees who attacked Democratic health care reform efforts. For example, during the week of August 24, Fox News aired 22 clips of town hall meeting attendees expressing an opinion or asking a question that opposed progressive health care reform efforts, but aired zero clips of town hall attendees expressing an opinion or asking a question supporting reform.

• The anti-Obama 9/12 rally in Washington DC stemmed from Glenn Beck’s 9/12 Project, and Fox News again worked to turn out their viewers, manufacturing an event meant to convey widespread opposition to everything Obama. (In no small part due to Fox's efforts the spectacle was then covered as such across multiple media channels nationwide.) At the rally, a Fox News producer was caught on camera revving up the crowd. Beck soon reported that 1.7 million people had attended the event, even though unofficial estimates put the crowd size at about 60,000 to 75,000 participants.

• Fox News is waging a vicious witch hunt against Obama administration officials, not only distorting their records, but actively campaigning for their firing or elimination. Targets have already included Van Jones, Cass Sunstein, John Holdren, Kevin Jennings, and Valerie Jarrett. After Jones resigned, the Fox Nation, the network's new website, literally declared victory.
Nor was this an isolated incident:

Fox News routinely invents scandals, such as the supposed controversy surrounding President Obama's speech to the nation's schoolchildren. Fox deliberately invites outrage, which then becomes "news." For example, Fox Nation asked parents to “sound off” on the subject.

Similarly, Fox's obsessive and stunningly disproportionate fixation on subjects like ACORN reveal the clear partisan orientation of its operations. Consider the following data from a recent Media Matters study focused on the programming of Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity:

It is further revealing to consider that while this study factored in Beck's time on CNN Headline News prior to his departure to Fox News, 1,002 of his program's 1,045 total ACORN mentions occurred on his Fox program – approximately 95.9%.

Does any of this activity sound like the work of a real news organization? Is it any wonder that potential 2012 Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has paid tribute to FoxNation.com, encouraging people to visit the site? "Hey, FoxNation.com and my fans there, they're the best," he recently said. "Keep it going. I hope that we get a lot of strength and that helps us in 2010 and the years beyond."

Lobbying and Fundraising

Matching the behavior of a political campaign, Fox now openly lobbies on air in opposition to progressive legislation. Glenn Beck, Betsy McCaughey, Newt Gingrich, Dick Morris, Michele Bachmann, and others have all implored viewers to call Capitol Hill. Hosts commonly display congressional phone numbers, and have even provided talking points to pass on to their members of Congress.

Fox News also acts as a fundraising arm of conservative political operations. Fox News contributor Dick Morris and host Mike Huckabee use their airtime to direct viewers to support PACs and 527s they are connected to. These entities have used their funds to support Republican campaigns. Even though this behavior has been publicly documented, Fox News has made no effort to stop it.

Directly Lifting GOP Documents

It has also become increasingly difficult to tell the difference between Fox and the GOP opposition research department. We’re not talking about simply echoing a talking point. On multiple occasions this year, Fox News has simply lifted Republican documents and put them on air without identifying the source. For example:

• Fox News anchor Jon Scott purported to "take a look back" at how the economic recovery plan "grew, and grew, and grew." In doing so, Scott referenced seven specific dates and used on-screen graphics citing various news sources from those time periods -- all of which came directly from a Senate Republican Communications Center press release. One on-screen graphic even reproduced a typo contained in the Republican press release.

• Host Bill Hemmer repeatedly suggested information concerning four "interesting" projects reportedly funded by the Economic Recovery Act was obtained through Fox News' own research. However, nearly all of the information Hemmer mentioned first appeared on Rep. Eric Cantor's Republican Whip website.

Opinion 24/7

It is crucial to emphasize that the two instances cited above did not occur during one of Fox News’ “opinion” shows. Rather, they occurred during shows Fox News claims to be straight news reporting. In response to increasing pressure, Fox News’ leadership has attempted in desperation to draw an illusory distinction between the two. “The average consumer certainly knows the difference between the A section of the newspaper and the editorial page,” Michael Clemente recently told The New York Times.

Opinion certainly has its place on the cable dial. But at Fox News, it is all partisan politics, all the time. Numerous examples abound, but consider the following few:

• America's Newsroom (9 a.m. – 11 a.m. ET):
→ America's Newsroom repeatedly directed viewers to participate in a "virtual tea party." On April 10, Hemmer told viewers, "Can't get to a tea party? Fox Nation hosts a virtual tea party," while co-host Megyn Kelly said, "You can join the tea party action from your home if you go to the FoxNation.com ... a virtual tax day tea party."

• Happening Now (11 a.m.-1 p.m. ET):
→ During two segments on the April 1, Happening Now aired "FOXfact[s]" purporting to describe facts about the House Republican budget. However, all of the seven "FOXfact[s]" displayed onscreen were nearly identical to portions of an op-ed by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) published in that day's Wall Street Journal.

• Live Desk (1-3 p.m. ET):
→ On March 16, Live Desk co-host Martha MacCallum claimed that "after week of economic doom and gloom, the Obama administration is now singing a slightly different tune. Take a look at what was said in recent interviews this weekend." Live Desk then aired clips of administration officials purportedly giving an optimistic view of the economy, including video of Vice President Joe Biden stating, "The fundamentals of the economy are strong." However, Biden did not make those remarks during an "interview" that weekend; he made them at a September 2008 campaign event in which he criticized Sen. John McCain for making that statement. MacCallum apologized the next day.

• Special Report (6-7 p.m. ET)
→ A recent study coordinated by the Center for Media and Public Affairs found that on Special Report with Bret Baier – the closest thing Fox has to a straight newscast – 77 percent of its coverage of President Obama was negative, and only 23 percent positive – twice as negative as the network news channels. As an example of this: on June 29, Baier falsely suggested that Obama has cited Canada's medical system as a "possible model" even though Obama has explicitly rejected a Canadian-style health care system.

Fox News’ institutional imperative is perhaps most succinctly revealed by the graphics aired during the broadcast "news" day. As before, examples are too numerous to include in full, but simply consider this: When the House completed debate on the Hate Crimes Bill, Fox ran a graphic stating, “House Dems Vote to Protect Pedophiles, But Not Veterans.”

As with the above examples, this graphic was run not during an evening "opinion" show, but during America's Newsroom.

Fox News Audience Isn't Persuadable

Despite these stark realities, there still exists the admittedly attractive argument for trying to reach a broader audience. Moderate and conservative Democrats especially may feel the need to appear on Fox News in order to reach more voters in their districts. But this is mostly a mirage. In campaigns, resources and energy are typically devoted to persuadable audiences, not to the hardest part of the opponents’ base.

Despite claims to the contrary, from an electoral standpoint, watching Fox News is one of the highest correlating factors to voting Republican. In 2006, pollster Mark Mellman wrote in The Hill:

“Yet, in our 2004 polling with Media Vote, using Nielsen diaries, we found that Fox News viewers supported George Bush over John Kerry by 88 percent to 7 percent. No demographic segment, other than Republicans, was as united in supporting Bush. Conservatives, white evangelical Christians, gun owners, and supporters of the Iraq war all gave Bush fewer votes than did regular Fox News viewers.”

In the run up to the 2008 election, Rasmussen reported similar results:

“Eighty-seven percent (87%) of Fox News viewers say they are likely to vote for John McCain . . . only nine percent of those who watch Fox News say they will vote for Obama.”

Think of it this way: a progressive is no more likely to persuade a Fox News viewer than they are to persuade participants in a GOP county convention – and even less likely to win Fox News viewers than key members of Republican demographics such as white Born-Again Christians and gun owners.

Progressive participation on the network in recent years has yielded no apparent benefit. Approximately the same proportion of Fox News viewers said they were going to vote for Barack Obama as voted for John Kerry, while nearly every other constituency increased in Democratic performance.

Furthermore, on the issues, active progressive participation on Fox shows over the years does not appear to have persuaded the Fox audience to reconsider their views. A study published in October 2003 and conducted by the University of Maryland's Program on International Policy found that Americans held numerous misconceptions concerning crucial details regarding the justifications for the Iraq war, specifically that links between Iraq and al Qaeda existed; that weapons of mass destruction had been located in the country following the invasion; and that world public opinion supported the U.S.-led conflict. Crucially, viewers who relied on Fox News as their primary source of news were most likely to be misinformed. From the study:

And in that regard, times haven't changed. A recent poll conducted by NBC recently found:

“72% of self-identified FOX News viewers believe the health-care plan will give coverage to illegal immigrants, 79% of them say it will lead to a government takeover, 69% think that it will use taxpayer dollars to pay for abortions, and 75% believe that it will allow the government to make decisions about when to stop providing care for the elderly.”

Yes, progressives need to reach out to moderate and conservative voting blocs and reason with and reach all those with whom they may not agree – but Fox's hard-right audience makes it of little use for such an effort.

For Fox News, Progressives Are Just Fresh Meat

Fox News is such hostile territory that a progressive appearing on it can't even expect to be treated with civility. Fox hosts have been consistently disrespectful to Democrats and progressives who appear on their airwaves. Even worse, Fox has used the tapes of these interviews to then further smear progressive guests when they are unable to defend themselves.

Consider the following example: Several weeks ago, U.S. Rep. Barney Frank appeared on The O’Reilly Factor to discuss the ACORN controversy. Fox & Friends co-host Steve Doocy later played the tape of Frank's appearance and then attacked him by claiming he had “somebody running a prostitution ring out of his house.” Bill O’Reilly had not raised the charge during his interview, nor was Frank there to defend himself when Doocy leveled the charge against him.

Not long ago, Salon.com editor Joan Walsh valiantly used an appearance on Bill O’Reilly’s show to call out Fox News’ atrocious coverage. But confronted with criticism, O’Reilly lost his composure, accusing her of “having blood on her hands” for holding pro-choice views. It’s not too much to conclude that the more appropriately confrontational a progressive guest is in the Fox News format, the more likely they are to be subjected to this sort of sickening caricature by hosts who control the set. Just last week, Democratic strategist Steve McMahon was called a “radical socialist” and “Mr. Liberal” in the course of a “friendly” interview by Sean Hannity. And just last week, Fox fired Dr. Marc Lamont Hill, one of the more outspoken liberal guests on the network who had in the past defended individuals such as Van Jones.

In each of these instances, Fox News put its own agenda before its responsibility to anything resembling serious discussion. These should serve as instructive examples for progressives who are considering whether or not to engage Fox News.

Even if you yourself are not subject to such disparaging treatment, there is no reason to think that your five-minute segment would provide any real value or political upside in the overall context of 23 hours and 55 minutes a day 365 days a year of partisan political programming aimed at destroying the Obama administration, the Democratic leadership, and the progressive legislative agenda.

Conclusion

As the above evidence proves, Fox News is engaged in a 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week political campaign against the Obama administration, the progressive movement, and the entire progressive agenda. There is no real distinction between its "opinion" and so-called "news" programs. They both display the same contempt for journalistic standards, objectivity, and accuracy. The examples provided above represent a mere fraction of those Media Matters has collected and offer much for progressives to consider when deciding whether or how to engage Fox. In our professional opinion, any progressive engaging Fox News will be engaging not a journalistic enterprise, but the political opposition.

When confronted with evidence and charges such as these, Fox has reacted forcefully to protect its image, brand, and ratings. This reveals that it is not impervious to criticism. In fact, Fox is scared. One need look no further than its paranoid reaction to the recent comments of Anita Dunn to see this fear. "If they repeat this long enough," said Fox's Bernie Goldberg on October 19, "and often enough – that Fox News is not a real news organization, it's an arm of the national Republican Party, it's not to be taken seriously – if they say that long enough, it might become part of bloodstream of the American culture."

For once, Mr. Goldberg’s network was broadcasting the truth. Fox News’ success as a political campaign depends upon the pretense of being an independent and credible news organization. It is now the job of progressives to expose the true nature of the network, thereby defending their own political principles and the institution of journalism itself.

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Reader Comments (341)

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my question is :where lies fox's moral compass???they claim to play to the christian right,but they spew lies/half truths/doctored interviews/hate 24/7 and think they deserve a platform-the WH,to do it.fox news belong in the entertainment rack next to the enquirerer.sure fox has a large following.so does the enquirer.i'm tired of this christian right,too.i believe in God.he is always with me.i don't have to seek him out in some building or give money to a church-cult or whatever to know He's there and know i'm Loved.i voted for obama and feel i did the right thing for where we were at that time.i make up my Own Mind.this business of calling him our messiah.etc. are scare tactics to get the *sheep all worked up.you rightwingnuts need to be aware that the Wolf in sheep's clothing is fox news.you're being Brainwashed and going right along with it.we need to work together.dragging your feet just to make a Point has grown old.how about being part of the solution,rather than being such a big part of the Problem.grow up,or take your toys/puppets and GO HOME!!!!!!!

Why does 'media matter?' Because they know the First Amendment is still practiced at FOX News and Brock and his 'digressive' cronies at Media Matters don't like anyone reporting anything that hasn't been approved or directly controlled by the White House with their talking points memos. Brock, Obama & Co. are in the mold of propagandist Joseph Goebbels. They hate America, they hate the truth; therefore they hate FOX News.

It is always amusing to see fake journalists, who have no clue what true journalism is all about, displaying their jealousy of the only journalism worth supporting out there: Journalism based on truth, journalism based on facts, and journalism willing to attack the government with that truth and those facts. FOX News has been consistent in their message, and will continue to expose the corruption in our current government regardless of what Obamamites say.
If the government feels the need to attack FOX because it does not support their Marxist, so-called "progressive" agenda, then our government is truly in trouble. Hopefully, the Supreme Court will see it that way, too.

How ridiculous! Basically, unless you agree with Obama, then you must be silenced! And, where is the outrage and the lawsuits for violating the constitution? Why does't the President with all his rethorical powers, the brilliant men that helped him win his historic election and his majorities in congress and the Senate, get down to governining? How utterly pathetic that given all the goodies they have, they think the problem is a TV Network news hour?

Good god, these liberals will stop at nothing, including censoring the press to get what they want. Do you progressives really support censoring fox or for that matter any other conservative news source? Why do you want to censor opposing views? I know, I know, they are all lies blah blah blah. Of course, any view different than yours is a lie. But since we apparently are smarter than you, we can see it for what it is, an attempt to censor the press.

This is beyond ridiculous. Media Matters
is a joke and most reasonable people
know that. Fox is no more biased than
MSNBC or CNN. I suppose they would
say Olbermann, Maddow and Schultz
are not biased and inflammatory in their
comments and lets not forget "tingle leg"
Matthews. It is no coincidence that twice
as many people watch Fox as the others added together. This will not end well

Heh, apparently some media matters more than others. Those cheering the Fox War should remember that what goes around comes around and it won't always be a liberal administration in the White House. The moment you add exceptions to a free press all freedoms become that much more vulnerable.

FOX has a right to their opinion, MSNBC is a arm of the white house and it does not bother me. I simply don't listen to them. This is very dangerous to our county when the white house and it's socialist friends wants to silence the opposition.

Laughing my butt off at the commenter who "never heard Anderson Cooper express an opinion." Would that be Anderson "it's hard to talk when you're teabagging" Cooper? You people have an interesting threshold for bias (and appropriate behavior).

President Obama and Whitehouse
statt GROW UP. I have never in my
lifetime heard and seen such junk.
What has happened to our Government. Stop this nonsense
Get over yourselves and start
working for the people of America.
Once again GROW UP

We are ALL biased at the start of an issue. All of us have the right to post what we think and not be construed to be in the pocket of ANY political party or PAC. Here we have Media Matters purporting to be the judge of what we should think upon hearing NEWS or political commentary ( their is a difference and Fox like every other network has reporters as well as commentary and controversial , and critical talk show commentators). It is insulting to every true American who believes in Freedom of Speech to be lectured and provoked by Media Matters into believing that they Media Matters know what is best for America. Media Matters you are precisely what you decry. A totally biased organization out to just harpoon and sink and freedom of thought that you disagree with. You make your organization sound like the OLD Soviet Union and every other dictatorial organization that would lead all to one thought which you support or to the gates of gulags for those who disagree in the slightest. I am an American. I will listen to anyone and everyone of differing views and then make a reasoned decision of my own as is necessitated by my birth right as a citizen of a GREAT country. I am sickened by swill such as media matters just as I am sickened by the swill of a Limbaugh at times, Olbermann at times , Hannity at times , matthews at times. They are all equal under the law to promote their opinions as citizens without McCarthy tactics of those who disagree with them purely by the network or party they associate with.
God Bless America !

I laugh when ppl argue for fox's right to express its opinion. The irony is beautiful; the 'opinion' statement proves Media Matters' point better than any other argument presented... the point being that news isn't about one's opinions...(or...if two oposing opinions exist and are presented...they should be given equal air time, and should be presented by comperable knowledgable, articulat ppl). The issue at hand is accuracy in journalism, which has nothing to do with opinion. period. can't stop laughing.

Who is George Soros? He is a billionaire convicted criminal in France. He is the puppet Master behind the curtains today of Obama and the far left organizations like Media Matters, DailyKos(Kooks), MoveOn.org, Open Society, and many others that he personally funds through non-profit shell games. He is a disgusting man. A criminal. Why is George Soros allowed to trade in our markets? Why is he allowed to own a bank?
A Convicted Criminal! Yet another criminal that Obama sleeps with. Obama said, "look who I surround myself with"
OK, Obama surrounds himself with communist Code Pink, William Ayers, Bernadine Dohrn, and vile racist white hater - "Rev" Wright for 20 years! He hires a Communist racist Van Jones. He hires a nutjob that believes Chairman Mao - a murderous thug killer of at least 40 million Chinese is important to her - Anita Dunn. These people are insane. They hate America. They hate our Free Market system that made us the strongest, most prosperous nation in the world.
Please people. Wake up! Only Dictators and Tyrants act like Obama, Axelrod, Rahm Emanuel in trying to tear down an entire News organization! Putin, Chavez, Iran, Saudia Arabia... all limit free speech and a free media!!!
Saul Alinsky rules, yet another Communist from Chicago is their game plane.
Distract, Attack, Lie, Cheat - Do anything necessary to achieve your goals. Any means!
This is scary stuff. America was never built on these principles. Our Founding Fathers knew that Power corrupts. They also knew that Morals and authority by a Creator is the only thing that separates this nation from all others.
That men will naturally fall, fail and sin. Without God, rejecting God, men turn to themselves in foolish ways and create their own False Messiahs.
People now worship Obama as if he is the second coming and anything he says is good, while anyone who disagrees is to be silenced?
Are you kidding me? Is this America?
No one! No President, Republican or Democrat has the right to silence the media! To Intimidate!
Yesterday, ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN all stood by Fox and against the President!
You know why "liberals"? Because Obama was abusing his powers! This is NOT China. This is Not Venezuela! This is not Russia, Saudi Arabia, Sudan!!!
Now wake up! I'm an Independent. And what this President is doing is acting like a Despot, like he owns us and we are his slaves.
Sheeeesh!

ginafriend --- Keep laughing as ignorance is bliss. In mssing the point you prove your tunnel vision. Fox has journalits AND talkshow commentators. When Fox journalists report the news they keep to the facts of a story not a blind following the blind rhetorical brownnosing as dsiplayed on MSNBC. Sure Rachel Madsex reports only the facts. Now that is FUNNY !!!!! Fox is as every other network , both an entertainment channel by hosting those of a differnet opinion and also reporting the bombings in Afghanistan. Now Ms? Maddex is accusing Fox of rallying rebellious rowdies in dissent of it's government. At least try to be open minded . One should remember that half the people voted against Obama. That' is a lot of people to paint with one color. I also wonder how Obama would fair NOW in a redux of the election. Todays journalism has no no principles. Some follow te principles of thomas Jefferson . Some ( like Anita WHO?) follow the philosophy of their favorite philosopher in the political vein. Mao Tse Tung. Yeah defend America by quoting Mao -- good show !

I'm sorry to point this out to you but I think you might have cut and pasted from another article you surely must be writing on the current administration. I've taken the liberty to make the corrections for you.
The Obama administration is not a presidential administration. It now comprises all of the elements of a political campaign, including organizing, explicitly partisan advocacy, (highly dubious) opposition research, War Room-style attack communications and even fundraising for the democratic party (lower case for emphasis) and the "progressive" party (lower case and quotes for emphasis).

What about economic news, is ABC not news because their opinion is that the stock market will tank but MSNBC is because they say it will probably keep rising even though they both report the same actual current numbers. What if ABC looked at the nasdaq and the djia but MSNBC only reported the djia. With this philosophy about Fox it must be true that NSNBC is still correct because the white house would like you to think that the market is still rising so you will go along with his government buyouts and overspending plans. Or how about all organizations who kept tract of the market appointed executives from the same party, they all get together to stage the market the way they want. What if they said they will not allow Fox news to ask any questions because they are reporting their new affiliations as a bad thing and therefore are not a news network.
After seeing Obamas press conferences, it is plain to see how staged all the questions are. I would rather not see them at all. I don’t want my president to have to research his answers to tell me what I want to hear, I want the truth as I was promised.
It is sad to see that these so called "progressives" could care less how our great government is supposed to work. Fox news ratings are higher than ever because majorities do not agree with what the current administration is doing and they are sick of the other networks showing them as a perfect administration so they can get what they think is the inside scoop. Even this very controversy is not talked about enough on other networks. Remember, Fox only has one of five major networks. 4 of these networks don’t report major stories that non “progressives” deem important. War on Fox, Rush, or anyone with a large audience including democrats-republicans is a war on the American people. I disagree with Sponge Bob, but instead of waging war on Nickelodeon, I just don’t let my kids watch it because I know that many people don’t share my views. And I certainly don’t claim that it’s not a cartoon.
The American people are smart enough to decide things for themselves and all of Fox’s viewers have seen other networks before (you can’t buy cable with one channel). To see anyone wage a war on media is ridiculous and unpatriotic. If I think it’s important that the white house is staging meetings and contradicting themselves more than any other president in my lifetime, or that our leaders are giving my tax dollars to corrupt partisan organizations (Acorn) or that promises are being broken -- I will watch Fox because other networks seem to think that we shouldn’t see such things because they don’t help the agenda of the white house or are scared that the white house will punish them too. If I affiliated myself with any party and the government spent money to promote my party I would still find it wrong and newsworthy when the news broke, not when I got slack for not reporting it.
Of course Fox is scared along with anyone who knows much about history in Germany, Russia, Venezuela, China, etc. It is always censorship first before you can convince masses to transform into a dictatorship. I am scared just seeing the posts in this blog that we are probably on a path of no return of giving away our rights. Our country has become great because the masses decided what they needed and came up with ideas to meet those needs. If people can only watch networks approved by our president they will no longer have the total info to make these decisions. Our government now owns much of the Automotive industry, banking industry, working on the medical, media, retirement, and more than we can keep tract of. It is sick to see so many people not paying attention to what is really going on here. If less people said “let’s not talk politics” then this guy probably wouldn’t be in office.
Why don’t we just shut down all the networks for portraying global warming as a fact when by all definitions it is a hypothesis. So many of my tax dollars, my employers, my bank, my doctors, etc are spent on political propaganda that I am mad, sick, and scared all at the same time. I’m not sorry to anyone that Fox news will not contribute to it. I am however sorry that the progressives are spinning this 180 degrees trying to say that Fox are the ones with propaganda because they don’t meet their political minority agendas.

for those who can't figure out what "I think" means or "in my opinion", I must tell you that the following is sattire: irony, sarcasm.
"I hope that when John Doe is elected president in the next term he decides ABC is not news. "They keep reporting about how he voted when he was in the senate, I mean cmon, how is he going to get anything done if the people know that he is against climate change and wants us to burn down the forests. I'm sure he can get away with it because they say opinions once in a while. then maybe the other networks will be scared and not report on it either. Oh - and they can get rid of that show where the guy is always talking about what he thinks because he has alot of viewers who don't like John Doe anymore"
T

Who comes to mind when I say Van Jones and communist party ? Who comes to mind when I say Anita Dunn and Mao ? Who comes to mind when I say Cass Sunderlin and past socialist views ? Who comes to mind when I say Lew Ayers and bombing our government? Who comes to mind when I say Rev Wright and poisoning the blacks by whites devils ? There is more but Obama and his followers obviously don't care about the American value system.

Media Matters reminds me of a bunch of 10 years olds, with the mentality to match. They never ferret out the news they just invent their comments to make themselves feel important. Their readers match the publishers. They never question, just follow blindly, very much like the Huffington Post. Not even woth the bother of reading their BS, either one of them.

Media Matters is funded by George Soros and has an explicit agenda to advance their leftwing ideology by hook or by crook. They are corrupting and poisoning our politics and are utter bullies and shameless partisan hacks. They are a danger to our freedom and a threat to sane, rational political discourse.
This action by Media Matters is what the Brownshirts did in 1930s germany - political intimidation and isolation. Shame on Obama for stooping to the tactics of despots.

That anyone would wast time trying to defend Faux as a real news outlet amazes me. No one who has watched it for even 5 minutes could possibly fail to recognize them as nothing more tha the propaganda arm of the Bush-cheney crime family. Who are you trying to convince? Perhaps the deaf and blind or non-English speakers?
As far as the "libral media" they constantly refer to,would that be the same liberal media that endlessly cheerleaded the march to war in Iraq, dubbed Rudy Ghouliani a "hero" because he came out of his rat hole 5 minutes earlier than shrub on 9-11, and breathless reported on the Whitewater "scandal" for 6 years before acknowleding there was no scandal?

What I see in the supporters of Fox is the same indifereance to facts, hip-shot opinion on something they couldn't understand or comprehend, and "don't confuse me with facts-I know what I know." bullyboy attact mentality. Fox slogan (from Orwell's 1984) TRUTHS ARE LIES, WAR IS PEACE,LOVE IS HATE-dove tails into the neo-con mantra...

What I see in the supporters of Fox is the same indifereance to facts, hip-shot opinion on something they couldn't understand or comprehend, and "don't confuse me with facts-I know what I know." bullyboy attact mentality. Fox slogan (from Orwell's 1984) TRUTHS ARE LIES, WAR IS PEACE,LOVE IS HATE-dove tails into the neo-con mantra...

Of course, JOHN isn't being partisan at all---ROFLMAO!
from John:
Reports form non-partisan watchdog groups (that is how CNN and MSNBC and the NY Times describe Media Matters) are very important in laying the groundwork to get rid of Faux "news" and talk radio. I believe their fine reporting will help get the people on the right side so when the FCC uses their rule making power there will be little or no opposition. Faux news and talk radio is hate speech and is not protected speech under the 1st Amendment. Once Obama gets a few more Supreme Court nominees they will support any FCC decision. Most conservative views are hate speech and maybe we can lock those monsters up or drive them for the mainstream. I like how Obama zinged Faux news its a message to the others. How about no company that received govt bailout money or does business with the govt can advertise on talk radio or faux news. Theyll be gone real soon. This partisanship MUST END!

And this comes from a liberal group whose agenda is to push liberal causes for our President. Pot... Kettle... Black..... I find it amusing to read the post from people on here who have decided they know what a "real" news organization is. From what I've read so far, it is only those news organizations that report in favor of their views. My guess is that these are the same people who wailed about President Bush and his administration about anything they did. Where is the outcry about MSNBC and its negative coverage about our former President. At least Bush had a thick skin. This President has constantly shown himself to be thin skinned and sensitive to any criticism of his agenda. He then uses the office of the Presidency as a bully pulpit to attack (wasn't there something in his campaign about hope and a new Washington?) those who dare oppose him. He loved the Chamber of Commerce and praised them when they helped push stimulus, but now attacks them when they don't agree with his agenda. This is no way to govern, and the centrist and moderates in this country will certainly remember come election time. This will be a one-term president who could have been much more.

And furthermore, how can any decent American adhere to fock noise peddling of lies,hate & racism in this country,and in no other country in this world would this be tolerated..Wake up America!!!
free speech ok,but abuse of free speech is a horse of a different color

My fellow conservative citizens. No one is trying to prevent Fox-news' 1st Amendment Rights. All the article says is that they cannot be considered a news organization. They are perfectly within their rights to continue doing whatever fox does. Why is that hard to understand? You still have the right to hate Obama. You still have the right to call him hitler, nazi, communist, socialist, and boogie man. You conservatives can still do that and I'm sure will continue to do just that with no harm done to except maybe, possibly a bruised ego.

I dont often think too highly of media matters, and dont typically put too much stock in what they say.

However, they are spot on about Faux news and their lack of journalistic integrity. Basically, fox is really just a paid mouthpiece that broadcasts the agenda and talking points of the right wing GOP. They simply arent a real news network because of this...they are just entertainment and opinion...just like Limbaugh's show.

Well, I see the contingent from grandma's basement has weighed in. Why dont you go hump someone elses leg jerkoff, as the intelligent folks are trying to have a discussion here. Go get your hand lotion, tissues and Sarah Palin picture and do your thing...just be sure grammie doesnt bust in on you again, as last time you nearly gave the old bat a heart attack.

You would have to be a brain dead moron to actually believe that Fox news isnt biased. Then again, gauging from some of the comments here I can see that the brain dead morons are very well represented.